November 07, 2018

The Freelance Lawyer

One is the elite large firm. The other is the small shop, usually with specialized services such as family law or IP.

The middle is disappearing. Middle-sized law firms usually lack the branding of BigLaw to bring in the business. Their high overhead prevents them from giving the price breaks SmallLaw can.

Small shops are able to nail down major assignments.

That has created increased demand for just-in-time legal expertise - that is, the freelance lawyer. In his article and podcast on Abovethelaw.com, Joe Patrice describes this phenomenon and how LAWCLERK is bringing small firms and freelancers together.

Lawyers become freelancers for many of the same reasons those in other professions do.

Perhaps they don't want to operate in the closed system of a job.

They might have lost their good job.

Since they have a family, they prefer to work from home and primarily telecommute.

They might be retirees.

Or, they could be among the large number of military spouses who need to make a living, despite the obstacles presented by all the relocations.

Small shops, as with so many other kinds of business, have peaks and valleys in demand for their services. They realize they can keep their overhead low by outsourcing specialized tasks during those peaks and not having full-time employees sitting around when things are slow.

LAWCLERK, created by lawyers Greg Garman and Talitha Gray, is a platform on which the two can meet. Here is how it works. The website contains helpful articles for new users. Here, for example, is one on pricing.

In other professions, such as communications, there are already myriad platforms analogous to LAWCLERK. They range from high-end Mediabistro.com to lower-end Craigslist.com - sites - Writing/Editing.

The trick for both buyers and sellers of services is to understand how to attract the right talent/contract employer. That usually entails a learning curve. The same might apply to users of LAWCLERK.

Full Disclosure: I became a freelancer after a major reduction-in-force of us in middle management at a food corporation. During the long drawn-out process I developed TMJ and more. Never will I be laid off again, I vowed. And that was that.

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